Work on the new Constitution began immediately after the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR at the First Congress of People’s Deputies on June 12, 1990, in which the task was to create a new basic law on the basis of the principles proclaimed in it, including the principle of separation of powers.
“The congress was huge – more than a thousand people. Representatives of the regions believed that each region should be represented on the constitutional commission. As if the constitutional interests and constitutional ideas of the Kaluga region are different from those of, say, the Tula region. Therefore, the first time the constitutional commission was elected in the amount of approximately 70 people, since some regions simply did not find people whom they could send. ”
–
–
In line at the store in the early 90’s, Gennady Bodrov / Kommersant
—
Work on the new Constitution of the RSFSR was conducted in a difficult environment. The collapse of the USSR was approaching, the country’s economy was going through difficult times, even the most familiar goods like cigarettes and socks disappeared from store shelves. Huge lines have become commonplace. All this was accompanied by a weakening of central authority, and as a result, a parade of sovereignty and the collapse of a huge country began.
“When a country is in crisis, economic or political, it is categorically impossible to touch the text of the Constitution. In 1992 and 1993, we experienced this in our own skin. Then, more than 400 amendments were made to the Constitution, the amendments became a form of political struggle, and everything ended with an episode of civil war. ”
–
—
Ruslan Khasbulatov, in 1991-1993 – Chairman of the Supreme Council, Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of People’s Deputies, one of the main opponents of Boris Yeltsin during the political crisis of 1993:
“I began to systematically convene chairmen of the regional, provincial, republican meetings at the White House and all the time I told them:“ Look what happened with the Soviet Union. Do you really want the same thing? What will you do with your “states”? We will lose the country and you will become poor and useless, besides you will be kicked out, others will come instead of you – you won’t sit in your posts for months, don’t you see where everything is going? If we don’t provide and protect each other now and our country, the Russian Federation, we will all lose. Do you want this? ”
–
The result of the work of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR was the draft basic law, which, as it became clear by the summer of 1993, had no chance of successfully passing the approval procedure.
Victor Sheinis:
“The final result of these three and a half years – I will not tell all these ups and downs, there were quite dramatic events – was a project that could not be adopted, since it was impossible to collect two-thirds of the deputies in support of it. By the way, by that time several more projects had appeared, but only the draft of the working group of the Constitutional Commission was considered official. At the same time, not a single project could receive two-thirds of the votes. “Numerous measurements, opinion polls, and elections were held in the Supreme Council and at the Congress – never a project, not only ours, but also competing ones (the Communists alone presented two or three projects), did not gain the required number.”
–
Throughout 1993, while the work on the draft new Constitution continued, the country was aggravated by the political crisis due to the growing confrontation between the president and the Supreme Council.
“On April 25, 1993, a referendum with rigged voting results enabled Yeltsin to finally deal with the Soviets. On September 1, 1993, again violating the Constitution, Yeltsin temporarily removed me from the position of vice president by decree, hoping that I would come with a bow to ask for forgiveness. I had to work in my visiting office, which was in the Supreme Council. ”
–
—
The Kremlin decided that a way out of the stalemate could be the creation of a new body that would continue to develop the basic law, but not under the auspices of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR. This body was the constitutional meeting convened by the president.
“In the summer of 1993, a draft new constitution was prepared, which was then sent to the regions for consideration. At first, positive reviews began to come from there (with amendments and additions, of course), but then silence suddenly came. It turned out that Khasbulatov, using his authority to finance local councils, ordered that all local councils in the regions be sent for summer vacations. It became clear that he and his supporters gradually recovered from the shock caused by the results of the April referendum, and decided to sabotage the adoption of the new Constitution. ”
–
—
Meanwhile, the political crisis in the country was growing: in September 1993, the President dismissed Vice President Alexander Rutsky from his post, dissolved the Supreme Council and called for a universal vote on the new Constitution, which was a violation of the current basic law. After that, Yeltsin de jure was automatically removed from office of the president in accordance with article 121.6 of the current Constitution, the Constitutional Court concluded that the actions of the president are unconstitutional.
Alexander Rutskoi:
“Yeltsin removed from the post of president not the Congress, not the Supreme Council, but the highest judicial body of the country – the Constitutional Court. To this day, this decision of the Constitutional Court has not been canceled. So from 1993 to 1999, Yeltsin served as president illegally. This is our legal country. ”
–
The confrontation between the two branches of power ended in the shooting of parliament in October 1993. Further editing of the draft constitution was already done by the president.
Sergey Shakhrai:
“There are constitutions that are a very good format for a public consent treaty. For example, this is the Constitution of Spain. In October 1993, we did not have any social consent. There was an episode of civil war in the capital of our country. ”
–
A popular vote on the new Constitution was held on December 12, 1993. 58.43 percent voted in favor, 41.57 percent voted against. The new fundamental law entered into force on the day of its publication in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta on December 25, 1993.
—
The voting results caused a lot of controversy regarding their reliability. The authorities failed to provide comprehensive answers to the questions raised.
Victor Sheinis:
“When the Duma addressed three times [председателю Центральной избирательной комиссии Николаю] With a request to provide the protocols of all regional commissions to Ryabov, he first gave slurred explanations, and then said that in accordance with the law all these materials were destroyed.
–
When I suggested to my assistant to raise this issue, he reproduced the words of one of Yeltsin’s close associates, I certainly don’t remember whose exactly: “Do you want to start a civil war?”
–
–
Video of the day. Ksenia Sobchak and her operator removed the beatings and intend to sue
–
